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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687021">Strays</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossingwinter/pseuds/crossingwinter'>crossingwinter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ben Solo Owns A Lot Of Dogs, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-29 00:48:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,766</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22687021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossingwinter/pseuds/crossingwinter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey rescues a mangy mutt from the site of a junkyard and brings the dog to the Solo Veterinarian Clinic. There she falls in love with the handsome son who's just really trying to save all animals.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>86</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>736</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>For one is both and both are one in love: The Reylo Fanfiction Anthology's Valentine's Day Exchange</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Strays</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/dankobah/gifts">dankobah</a>.</li>

        <li>
          Translation into Русский available: 
            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29585115">Бездомный пёс</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carlie_Hessenthaler/pseuds/Carlie_Hessenthaler">Carlie_Hessenthaler</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Wars_Sequels/pseuds/WTF%20Star%20Wars%20Sequels%202021">WTF Star Wars Sequels 2021 (Star_Wars_Sequels)</a>
        </li>


    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>He’s whimpering and whining up at her, with big brown eyes and floppy brown ears.  His eyes are on her sandwich in a way that she relates to a little too hard. With a sigh, she rips the sandwich in half and puts a piece in the dirt.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Immediately, a tail is wagging and teeth are chomping at the thin bread and cheap grocery store lunchmeat and she holds out her hand for the dog to sniff.  “Who are you, little man,” she asks after he’s sniffed and clearly deemed her not an enemy. He’s got a collar—thin and green, but the tags seem to have been ripped off.  From the size of him, he’s probably been hungry for days, especially judging from the way his fur is matted.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She grabs the collar and looks around.  The junk yard is full of odds and ends and her eyes land on a rope that had been used to tie together a few chairs and a table that had come in earlier that week.  She drags the dog towards it and ties the rope firmly around his collar, then the other end around her waist.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Unkar,” she calls.  “I’m heading out for the day!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It gets no response.  Rey can do what she likes here.  Especially on a Thursday. For some reason, no one ever comes to dump their shit on a Thursday.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She drags the dog to her car, loads him in the second seat then tugs out her phone and googles </span>
  <em>
    <span>vet near me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The results are filled with veteran support groups and she clarifies the search and sees that the Solo Veterinarian Clinic is only a twenty minute drive.  The next closest vet is over an hour away.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Assuming you didn’t run a hundred miles to get away from home…” she glances at the dog.  Totally possible. “They may be able to find your mom and dad.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The dog whimpers and noses down at her bag below the seat.  It probably still smells like her sandwich. “They’ll have food for you,” she tells the creature.  It cocks its head. It recognized the word food. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Smart, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he thinks, looking at his lovely long face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You don’t have enough money for a dog, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she tells herself firmly as she turns her car on and leaves the dump.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi,” Rey tells the man behind the front desk—old, bespectacled, wearing a yellow cardigan.  “I found this fellow at the junkyard. Anyway he can get checked out? There haven’t been any missing dog reports, have there?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh my,” the old man says, standing.  “No. No, he doesn’t look like one of ours,” he gestures to a pinboard on a wall.  At the top, in neat block letters are the words </span>
  <em>
    <span>Have You Seen Me, </span>
  </em>
  <span>beneath which there are a whole host of pictures of dogs, cats, and a turtle.  “But we can put a picture up for him, and see if anyone else has noticed him. In the meanwhile…” the old man glances down at his computer screen.  “One moment, please.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sure thing,” Rey says and she sits down in a seat.  The dog rests his head on her knee, looking up at her nervously.  </span>
  <em>
    <span>You know we’re at the vet, don’t you.  And you don’t like it. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She scratches him behind the ear.  He’s a friendly boy. She wonders if he’d just tugged himself off his leash.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’ve we got here?” Rey looks up and sees a man in a white lab coat who is taller than she thought humans </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> be.  Rey’s tall herself but this man…well, he’s something else.  He has dark hair, dark eyes, and broad shoulders, and it takes Rey longer than she’d like to process that he’d asked her a question.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Found him by the dump,” she says.  The man crouches down and holds out a hand for the dog to sniff.  Immediately, it begins to growl.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Still smelling Millicent on me?” he asks the dog quite conversationally.  “Just a second. Bring him into that examining room.” He waves his hand towards an open door and Rey goes in.  In a lab room visible through a plate glass window, she sees the vet washing his hands.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This time, when he lets the dog sniff him, he gets a tail wag.  “Must have smelled too much like cat,” he says as he scratches the dog’s ear.  “So he’s not yours?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rey shakes her head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good of you to bring him in,” the vet smiles.  And it’s not until the vet begins moving around the room, taking out needles and syringes and all sorts of things that Rey has only seen on her rare trip to the doctor’s office that she blurts out—</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He’s not mine—do I have to pay for this?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The vet smiles at her.  “Nah. I’ll cover it. I’ll also take him home until we can work out what to do with him.  At least—I’ll take him home so long as he’ll play nice with the other strays. Will you play nice?” he asks the dog.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The dog barks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You have a lot of strays?” Rey asks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Lost souls always have a way of finding one another,” he says, sounding almost a bit sad.  “No one should have to be homeless.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No,” Rey agrees darkly.  “No, they shouldn’t.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m Ben,” he adds as he squats down to look at the dog again.  “You gonna show me your teeth?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Rey,” she says and he gives her a quick glance and a smile that makes her stomach flop a little bit.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good to know you, Rey,” he says.  “I like anyone who’ll take care of a dog.”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s that, or so Rey thinks.  It’s really not that at all. Because somehow, she sees Ben Solo everywhere she goes.  The town’s not exactly </span>
  <em>
    <span>big</span>
  </em>
  <span> but he’s there at the grocery store, at the gas station, getting coffee from the Dunkin Donuts.  It’s not until she’s walking through one of the lakeside trails that she actually talks to him again, though.  He’s out running with four dogs on a leash and two that are off leash, and she spies the one she’d found at the dump.  The dog definitely spies her too because it stops running, then starts barking and whining and tugging Ben towards her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The vet sees exactly what’s up and smiles at her.  He’s sweaty, his dark hair hanging damp in his shining face.  “How’s it going?” he asks as she crouches down and lets the dump dog lick at her face.  The other dogs are sniffing at her curiously too, except for the small one that’s trying to climb into her lap.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not bad,” she says.  “How’s he doing?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sweet as a lamb.  He </span>
  <em>
    <span>must</span>
  </em>
  <span> be lost because he’s such a family dog.”  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rey lets out a yelp of surprise as the dog’s tongue licks its way down her neck and across the top of her boob.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, knock it off,” Ben says, pulling the dog’s collar.  “That’s sexual harassment and you need to at least get consent first.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rey snorts.  “He’s a dog.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, and he’s not a repeat offender like Mitaka over here,” he says, nodding to the dog in her lap.  “He’ll hump your leg any time of day.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rey’s laughing and Ben’s laughing and the dog senses weakness in the laugh and lurches forward to lick Rey’s face again.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What have you been calling him?” Rey asks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Lucas,” Ben says.  “I got an uncle named Luke, and he doesn’t deserve to have a dog named after him, but I was feeling magnanimous.”  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rey doesn’t know what the word magnanimous means, but she can guess from context—the way that Ben’s voice goes a bit dark as he looks down at the dog again.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, maybe one day he’ll deserve it,” Rey says.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I doubt it,” Ben says at once.  “Dogs are better than people. Most people,” he adds, giving her a significant look.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t mean to ask it.  Maybe because she’s rarely included in that </span>
  <em>
    <span>most people </span>
  </em>
  <span>category, or maybe because Lucas seems so happy.  But the words, “Want to get dinner sometime?” fall from her lips before she can think them through and regret them because god knows she doesn’t have the money to actually take him out somewhere nice.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He hesitates and she wants to die.  Except she doesn’t because the hesitation isn’t that he doesn’t want her.  His eyes are so fucking expressive, maybe because he’s surrounded by puppy dog eyes all day, but he looks as though—well, he looks as though he is flattered and surprised and confused all at once.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’d like that,” he tells her, his voice quiet, a little thick.  “I’d like that a lot.”  </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Ben took over for his dad sort of by accident.  He’d done ten years of business before realizing he hated his job, his life, his colleagues, his friends and had decided to go to Vet school the way his dad had always thought he should.  His dad’s retired, lives a few towns over. They have a rocky, repairing relationship—a better relationship than he has with his mom, and a lot better relationship than he has with his uncle. The dogs at his dad’s clinic had always kept him company when he’d been alone as a kid, so dogs were better than people, and certainly better than his parents.  “Is this oversharing?” he asks her over his beer. They’re at a pizza joint—not outrageously overpriced, and Ben’s already told her in no uncertain terms that they’re splitting the first date, which she wished wasn’t as much of a relief as it was.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Rey tells him.  “I don’t date much.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Me neither.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rey grew up in and out of foster homes.  Dogs scared her but also didn’t. Their teeth were sharp and they’d keep you safe, but their barks and bites could frighten even a girl who didn’t get scared of guns or drunkenness or…or the other sorts of things she’d encountered growing up.  “Still better than people,” she tells him smiling and he nods. He’s listening intently, as though she’s the most fascinating person he’s ever met in his whole life. No one’s ever looked at her like that before. It’s terrifying and comforting, but mostly it makes her take his hand under the table.  He squeezes it as she tells him about working part time at the dump and part time at the CVS and part time at the hardware store, but none of them earning her enough money for health insurance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He tells her about coming back to a home he’d never felt like he’d deserved; she tells him about never having had a real home at all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Lost souls always have a way of finding one another, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he’d said when she’d brought Lucas into the clinic.  Had he known how true that was?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Because she feels like she’s found something in him as they make their way back to their respective cars.  Something that makes her feel a bit like she’s shining, and Rey never feels like she’s shining.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can I kiss you?” she blurts out as they approach his car—parked closer to the restaurant.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He turns and looks down at her and there it is again, that same surprised and flattered and confused look as before—this time with a little bit of hope.  And then his hands are on her hips and his lips are brushing against hers and the air seems to fizzle against her skin. His tongue, when it slips into her mouth, tastes like pizza and beer and she loves it, loves how warm and homey it tastes with that undercurrent that has to be him.  She wraps her arms around his neck, pulls him closer and he sighs into her mouth, deepening the kiss in a way that makes her heart race. Does it feel like this for him too? She thinks it might be from the way his hands are gripping her like he never wants to let her go.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Lucas is going to know we’ve been up to something,” he says when they do break apart minutes, hours, lightyears later.  “He’s gonna get mad at me for hogging you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I suppose I could come and say hi to Lucas,” she asks, peeking up at him through her lashes.  “To avoid causing you trouble.”  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ben grins at her and when she gets into her car, it’s to follow his home.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s not used to laughing during sex, but it’s hard not to when every time they’re getting in a groove, a dog whines at the door.  Which is better than when he hadn’t closed the door properly and Lucas had jumped up on the bed to lick at her tits again—this time unencumbered by t-shirt.  The dogs clearly weren’t used to Ben’s bedroom door being closed and they didn’t like it, even if they did seem to like Rey. And there was something unbelievably adorable about Ben muttering, “Shut up,” at them while rubbing his cock against her leg, his fingers stroking along her cleft so that warm breath pooled in her lungs and made her feel—</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’d never felt safe during sex before either.  It’s one of those stark things you notice when suddenly you do.  She’d never really felt taken care of like this before, had never really felt paid attention to—like she was more than just a warm body.  She was </span>
  <em>
    <span>Rey</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and Ben kept whispering her name into her neck, her lips, her tits, her stomach—everywhere his lips ghosted was a litany of </span>
  <em>
    <span>Rey, god, Rey.  You’re incredible.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She feels incredible in his arms, she feels like a goddess when she rolls him onto his back and straddles him, his hands on her ass, his eyes fighting the instinct to close in pleasure because she gets the sense he doesn’t want to stop looking at her.  That suits her fine. She doesn’t want to stop looking at him. She’s looking at him when his fingers rub and rub at the top at her slit—not exactly finding her clit with precision, but getting enough of it in his motions that her blood burns inside her and it’s easy to ride her way to a crest and collapse forward onto him, throbbing and warm and happy.  So very happy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you mind if I—?” he asks her shifting her hips a little.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Go for it,” she smiles and he’s rolling her off his chest and pulling out of her—which makes her whimper like the dogs outside, which makes her laugh, and then makes her laugh harder because he’s positioning himself behind her, lifting her hips in the air and she can’t help but mutter, “Doggy style,” as she laughs harder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh shut up,” he teases but he doesn’t sound mad.  If anything, he sounds like he’s trying not to laugh too.  He bends down and kisses a spot between her shoulder blades and then he’s off, thrusting into her with groans and grunts and she sighs and rubs her face in his pillow.  It smells like him. She likes that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He curls up behind her when he’s done, holding her to his chest, rubbing his face in the nape of her neck.  Outside the door, one of the dogs barks.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“They’re going to destroy the house if I don’t let them in.  Is that ok?” he asks her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Sure,” she says.  “Just come back.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’ll come back for you sweetheart, I promise.”  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one’s ever called her sweetheart before and she grins into the pillow as Ben extricates himself from her and goes to open the door.  “There you go, you delinquents,” he mutters and she hears the sound of paws and clicking of claws on the hardwood floor. Then Ben’s back and a moment later, at least two of the dogs have clambered up onto the bed and Rey glances at them, watching as they take into account that there is a whole extra human in their bed what is she doing there?  Mitaka barks curiously before going and lying near Ben’s feet, casting Rey a curious glance again as he does so.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lucas flops down next to Rey, his tail wagging happily as he licks her nose.  </span>
  <em>
    <span>See, you found a home too, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he seems to say as he licks.  </span>
  <em>
    <span>You found me one and I found you one.  Do you like it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She grins and twists her head to kiss Ben again, before snuggling herself back against his chest, sighing, and closing her eyes.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
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